Ellen Contini-Morava is an

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

linguist, interested in the meanings of linguistic forms,

discourse analysis Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is an approach to the analysis of written, vocal, or sign language use, or any significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse Analysis ( discourse, writing, conversation, communicative even ...

functional linguistics Functional linguistics is an approach to the study of language characterized by taking systematically into account the speaker's and the hearer's side, and the communicative needs of the speaker and of the given language community. Linguistic fun ...

and (noun) classification; in particular, in the relationship between lexicon and grammar. She specializes in

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. T ...

in general, and

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...

in particular.

Education and career

Contini-Morava received her PhD from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

in 1983 under William Diver and Erica Garcia. She is a

professor emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...

Books

Contini-Morava is the author of the book ''Discourse Pragmatics and Semantic Categorization: The Case of Negation and Tense-Aspect with Special Reference to Swahili'' (Mouton de Gruyter, 1989). Her

edited volume An edited volume or edited collection is a collection of scholarly or scientific chapters written by different authors. The chapters in an edited volume are original works (not republished works). Alternative terms for edited volume are ''contrib ...

s include ''Between Grammar and Lexicon'' (edited with Yishai Tobin, John Benjamins, 2000) and ''Cognitive and Communicative Approaches to Linguistic Analysis'' (edited with Robert S. Kirsner and Betsy Rodríguez-Bachiller, John Benjamins, 2004).

References

Linguists from the United States Living people University of Virginia faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Women linguists {{US-linguist-stub